It’s back to work as usual for Francis Scarpaleggia, who after a nail-biting, three-way race, was re-elected as the Liberal MP for the Lac-Saint-Louis riding.

“What a night,” Scarpaleggia said Tuesday, only a few hours after the final results came in, showing that this time round, he won by a margin of only 2,204 votes, a far cry from the 11,757-vote margin he had against his nearest rival in 2008 and the 11,424-vote margin in the 2006 vote.

“Of course, I’m pleased with the results, although it is bittersweet,” Scarpaleggia said, referring to the poor showing the Liberals made at the polls.

Despite the drastic decrease in percentages, Scarpaleggia was one of few Quebec Liberals who managed to ride out the NDP surge in Quebec.

Once a political powerhouse, the Liberals now hold only 34 seats across the country, down from 77.

Scarpaleggia, who will be serving his fourth term in office, came in with 18,457 votes, followed closely by NDP candidate Alain Ackad, with 16,253 votes. Conservative candidate Larry Smith, the former Alouettes president and Gazette publisher, came in a close third with 15 394 votes. The Green Party’s Bruno Tremblay got 2,315 votes and the Bloc Quebecois candidate Eric Taillefer reaped 1,689 votes.

Scarpaleggia said he was grateful that he made it through the NDP surge unscathed, considering the fate of many other Liberal MP’s, including Bernard Patry in the neighboruing Pierrefonds-Dollard riding. Patry who had been the riding’s MP since 1993, was defeated by a relatively unknown, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, now the new NDP MP for the riding.

Scarpaleggia said his victory was due in great part to many loyal and hard-working volunteers.

“I’m very honoured to have been chosen,” he said. “We worked very hard, ran an impeccable campaign, with so many loyal and dedicated volunteers.”

As for the Liberal party, Scarlpaleggia was ever the optimist.

“We’re going to start to rebuild. Things can change very quickly in politics, as we’ve just seen,” he said.

The Liberal caucus is expected to meet within the next few days.

As for himself, Scarpaleggia said there was work to do in the riding.

“I may take a few days here and there but we have a lot work at the riding office that we must catch up on,” he said.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Video

Dress for the Weather

Classified

Buy, sell and trade smarter.

Stories, pictures and tributes to life. View and place obituaries, and more.

Share the joy. Tell the world. Read and place announcements here.

The faster, fresher and greener way to shop flyers.

Find the job you want in your city. View and place job listings, and more.